Chapter 4: Who's the Barbarian?
On a plain grassfield near Ameld River, a giant mysterious gate had appeared.
The plain field was a part of Jura Tempest Federation. Because of it, the mysterious gate has been under intense surveilance since the anomaly had begun.
But yet, right now there was chaos happened there.
The army beyond the gate, who claimed themselves as warrior of Saderan Empire, had indiscriminately attacking the native of this world.
Twenty thousand of them had charged into the plain that lay upon them. Their confidence grew as warcry was shouted from every direction.
Standing against them, a 5000 brave high orcs was deploying their defensive formation. They perform a huge shield wall.
At first sight, it seems they would be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Saderan warrior. However, reality is not working as we always expected to be.
The cavalry troops had charged first, ramming themselves into the shield wall. They expect no matter how big these orcs, the strength of the highly trained war horse would overpower them and crushed their shield wall at once.
But as they rammed the shield wall, their vision had suddenly dark.
The riders were fallen, their horses trampled each other. Some riders have a good fortune because they were able to freed themselves from the horses, but for most, they were not so lucky.
In instant, 1000 cavalry has been neutralize. The first row of charge had gone very wrong.
On the contrary, the shield wall is still intact.
But General Agnius didn't stop there. He sent another wave of cavalry to charge at the enemy position, while his legionaires would flanked them from both sides.
He still have numeric advantages, and he planned to overcome this battle with it.
The sight of thousands giant orcs with fully equipped armor and weapons was indeed a terrifying sight. But they would be nothing in the front of 4 times larger force. In Falmart, an ordinary orc could be dealt with just one veteran hunter. But normally, a single orc was dealt with two soldiers at once.
Now, a single orc would be facing 4 warriors at once. Although he admit that these orcs were seems to be much bigger and stronger, he's certain that facing against 4 times numbers of their own would bring a furtouitos result.
He had completely ignoring the earlier presence, a butler who could fly and unharmed when he slash his sword towards his head.
That's right. When general Agnius shouted the attack order, Diablo had mysteriously dissappeared. General Agnius had thought he was trampled by the cavalry somewhere, and most probably already dead.
Little did he know, Diablo is far from being dead.
The second wave of the cavalry charge was consisted with 3000 in numbers. They are doing a frontal assault, directly aimed the enemy front rows.
Each of their flank was being assaulted by 5000 legionaires. The rest of the army were put in the rear.
At first glance, this is surprisingly gonna end up in stalemate. The soldiers of Saderan had fiercely attacking the orcs, but the orcs always manage to defend themselves unscathed.
They wear a full plate armor. Their whole body was covered with armor but there are some weak points such as joints to take advantage of.
The trained legionaires was already trained to face these kinds of enemy. Find the weak spot, work together to get it, and finished it quickly.
Yet, no matter how hard they tried to take advantage, they would always find themselves being fallen to the ground. Many of them still alive, but seriously injured.
The attack from orcs could only be desribed with one word, gigantic.
Their huge poleaxe were swinging like a giant reaper schyte, finishing everyone who come to their way. Some were very unlucky, because those poleaxe were hitting their necks and instantly beheading them.
The battle is still happening for a mere 30 minutes, yet general Agnius could see they haven't gaining ground even a bit. On contrary, his men started to dwindling. Their injured had retreated from the frontline, and the rear guard had getting thinner to reinforce the front.
Then, general Agnius choose to deploy his elite unit. The wyvern riders.
He barked at the commanding officer of the wyvern riders unit, ordering them to attack the orcs from the sky. He didn't gave that order earlier because he thought his cavalry and legionaires was more than enough to crushed the orcs army.
After receiving the order, the 100 wyvern riders flew off to the sky, gaining altitude to make a proper dive attack. They never thought that anyone would withstand them in the sky. And that's a big mistake.
Appeared out of nowhere, several dozen figures who appeared to be human, intercept them on the sky. They seems to be a normal human, apart from the featherless wing with a sharp horns on their edge. They wore almost no protective armor, and their wings have various colour on each individual.
Some are dark green, dark purple, and even a jet-black.
They were equipped with longswords and spears.
The wyvern riders were stunned to see a human with strange wings appeared out of nowhere towards them. And now, they manage to keep them from attacking the orcs.
They didn't have any choice other than to engage on aerial battle against these mysterious humans.
At first, they were confident since they didn't saw any of them wearing a protective armor. The only thing that makes them dangerous was their agility and speed. These human looking creatures are performing an aerial battle with sharps manouvre and overwhelming speed beyond their own trained wyverns.
But little did they know, these creatures were not humans.
They are dragonewts.
Ever since Jura Tempest Federation had grasped the whole world with their influence, Tempest had already strengthen it's influence in their own domain to maximum since long ago.
Every inch of their territory was being under Tempest's rule. This make every tribes, creatures, and even small kingdom was under Tempest jurisdiction.
There are however, some exception. Several tribes or the already exist kingdom were given their own autonomy. And one of them is the Lizardmen tribe.
Lizardmen tribe has already joined the Tempest ever since it's still a merely an alliance.
When the Jura Forest Alliance had grow into an independent nation, they choose to become a part of Tempest's nation. They have help the whole nation with various way. Supplying fresh waters, breeding edibles fishes, and many other products from swamp.
As a gratitude, Tempest gave them their own autonomy while also promised to gave security. And not only that, a low tax regulation and boosting infrastructure had given to the Lizardmen tribe under the Chieftain, Abiru.
In return, Chieftain Abiru had shared many of his warriors to serve Tempest nation and let them evolved into Dragonewts under their military units.
The result was the abundant of Dragonewts warriors.
Most of them serve in Blue Numbers Corps under Gabiru, but some who evolved into humanoid looking dragonewts recruited into Intelligence Division under Souei and Souka.
And these dragonewts have a hard scale which could protect them from even a unique-grade weapons. The most terrifying thing about these scales were their ability to mimicry the colour of the surrounding.
That's why, these dragonewts appeared to be wearing nothing more than casual clothes. But in actual, under those clothes, there were hard scales that sturdier than the legionaires armors.
And that's the second mistake from these Wyvern Riders.
Confident they could take these dragonewts with bigger force, they calibrate their manouvre and deploying an intercept attacks. They would predict where these dragonewts fly towards to and then stab them with their huge and long spears.
These wyvern riders were also trained on aerial battle. But they were trained to fight a against wyverns, not dragonewts.
Soon, their training proves to be useless against these dragonewts.
The dragonewts, even with their inferior numbers were able to cut down the wyvern riders one-by-one.
They would harass the wyvern at first, then let the other to take care the riders as he kept busy controlling the wyverns.
Some wyverns even got cut down into pieces, making the riders had to free fall from such height.
The remaining wyvern riders saw what happen to their collegues and start to get panic.
They regroup while retreating, but the dragonewts didn't let them retreat easily.
Those dragonewts starting to throw a huge nets, capturing the wyverns along with their riders. One-by-one got captured, and the numbers who manage to retreat was barely around 20 riders left.
General Agnius saw what happened but couldn't believe it.
Every unit he have doesn't make any progress to gain ground. Worse, they started to loose their numerical advantage.
He started to stop the retreating armies and force them to get back to the frontline. He didn't want to let the enemy of monsters triumphed against his mighty legionaires. He was too prideful for that.
However, not every of his men shared a same vision with him.
A fellow patrician, Count Formal was one of them. He joined the front line and miraculously survived the onslaught by the giant orcs army.
Count formal had already retreated and saw how hopeless this battle. The cavalry and legionnaires couldn't break through the shield wall that performed by these giants orcs, and their elite wyvern riders has been defeated by mysterious enemy unit.
He himself didn't survived unscathed. His shoulders were mislocated, and his torso were slashed by one of the polaxe from the orcs. If not for his armor, he already a goner since a moment ago.
As the patrician, he have a privilege to immediately receive some medical help on the field. But it still not enough.
He walked himself to general Agnius, intending to ask him to retreated back inside the gate.
When he manage get closed, without hesitation, he speak without reservation.
"General, we must retreat back to the gate. We have to reinforce our army here."
General Agnius was flinched by the sudden proposition. But he came back to his senses, although it doesn't mean he agreed with Count Formal.
"Count Formal, you seems to be injured. You could go back inside the gate, but I'm not leaving. So was my men."
"General, that's not what I meant. What I meant is we retre-"
"No one is retreating! We have to breakthrough the damnend orcs! I don't need you here. You can go back inside and show your cowardice."
Count Formal was surely offended by the sudden outburst from the General. But he let it slide as he knew his main goal was more important than his feelings.
"Retreating right now is not a cowardice! It's a tactic to reinforce our strength right now."
Hearing Count Formal kept on retorting back, general Agnius has turned his annoyed feelings into a genuine anger.
"You shut yourself! A stupid demi-human sympathizer would never know the true power of warrior!"
"You fool! That has nothing to do with our situation right now!"
"No, it is! If I was wrong, you wouldn't whine yourself right now!"
"I'm not whi-"
But before Count Formal could retort back, one figure had suddenly show himself besides them. No one notice when he came.
"My my, gentlemen. An arguments during a critical situation was always lead to a complete disaster. General Agnius, before it's getting messier, I suggest you to withd-"
"'Guards!'"
Both Count Formal and General Agnius called to the general's bodyguards. They understood right away of the situation and immediately surrounding Diablo.
Without even need a second order, they charged towards him.
They thrust their spears in unison while completely surrounding Diablo. But Diablo just stand still, even in the face of dozen spears charging at him.
But no one paid attention. They didn't aware of how calm Diablo was. Until, their spears had reached the supposed to be a body of a man dressed with butler uniform.
Their thrust is stopped, of course. But it doesn't feel like stabbing anything. It felts like thrusting into a solid wall.
And at that moment, everyone who present at the scene was lifting their head to see Diablo was unharmed. Not even a tiny bit of scratch appear on his body.
"Kufufufu, I thought everyone had understand that I'm not gonna be harmed by this mere attacks since general Agnius had already done the same. But how foolish,"
Diablo suddenly grab one of the spear and in a mocking gesture, then break it apart with just one hand.
This little act had made every guards surrounding him trembling in confusion and fear. One man breaking a hardened wood? That's not a feat of a normal human could do.
But the most terrified person here is general Agnius.
He was well remembered that this guy was the early person he made a conversation with. He knew something was off about this man, but he tried to brush it off after ordering an attack to his whole army.
He simply thought this man was died during the surprise attack.
But here it is. Not only defying his belief, but once again mocking his pride.
But there's no room to be annoyed anymore. Right now he's fully understand the feeling. It was fear.
Faced with such overwhelming odd power, he knew he wouldn't have a chance. But he didn't want to admit it. Instead, he tried to figure out a way to take control the situation. So he tried the only option he have before retreated.
Threatening.
That's right. General Agnius had admitted he was outpowered by this man who introduce himself as Diablo. His army had gone dwindling every time had passed. Right now, he barely have the half of it's original number since he crossed the gate.
But there's still numerous army behind him. There will much more waves to come. There is still more than 100.000 troops.
Remembering this, general Agnius managed to make an arrogant smile.
"Heh, you're strong individual. I don't know what you are, but let me tell you something. You and your small numbers of monsters would become nothing in the face of the mighty Empire. And we will kept coming to you in larger numbers! That's why, surrender yourself and the army back there, Diablo. Surrender now while you can."
Hearing the threat, Diablo just kept his eerily gentle smile on his face. But Diablo didn't underestimate the threat either.
Learning every bits of lesson from Rimuru, he's now getting more accustomed to act more cautious and never make a quick judgement without any valid information.
Right now, Diablo knew nothing from the world beyond the gate. And if the threat from general Agnius were true, he pondered how much manpower this Saderan Empire has.
If what comes next were the same puny humans, there will be no problem at all to deal with them. Even to capture them was an easy feat since they were only a normal humans. But what if, he think, the maker of the gate itself would show up?
Making a stable connection between worlds was not an easy feat. Even for Diablo who could travel between worlds with his [Spacetime Domination], he's not yet able to maintain a portal like that for a long time. And this gate, it's not just able to connect between worlds, but also transfering dozen of thousands people unharmed from one world to another.
If the maker of the gate decided to show up right now, Diablo couldn't figure out what's gonna happen next.
But that scenario was also uncertain. What general Agnius meant could probably about his fellows, not his master. At this time, Diablo and Souei were thinking that these humans were only a pawns of the greater existence in their world. They were wary about their masters, but not the pawns.
Well, whatever came from that Gate, Rimuru-sama has entrusted me to take care of it. From my judgement, I would let General Agnius's threat unleashed.
Diablo said to himself.
If there's gonna be a lot more human soldiers pouring down from the gate, we would personally take care of them until a reinforcement from Benimaru arrived.
And to be honest, Diablo could instantly ended this chaos right away with his brute force. If not for Rimuru's policy to always pursue a peaceful resolution, Diablo would straight away slaughtering these puny invaders.
And if their master, the maker of the gate who turns out would be the one who showed up, he would engage with it with everything he have. Diablo has a power to rivaling the Original Angels and had a initial battle with Feldway before being finished by Rimuru. Whatever being beyond that gate, he would deal with it with the utmost care.
So with that, Diablo made up his mind. And to add a possibility to achieve a resolution peacefully, he decided to counter threatening the general.
"You seem confident with your army prowess. However, don't underestimate us General. We too, have abundant of finest warrior. If you kept on insisting to fight, then we would also unleashed our might to fight back."
Hearing the retort, General Agnius was taken aback. He didn't expecting his threat would be countered by a same threat. Even though he's a prideful arrogant men, he's not a complete fool and pretty much considerate.
He have seen with his own eyes that a few thousands of giant orcs could withstand his more numerous legionnaires, and his elite wyvern riders unit were almost wiped out by mysterious enemy unit. If Diablo tell the truth, he knew he was fighting against a powerful nation.
And what makes it more terrifying was he knew nothing about this place.
He didn't knew where he was, what nation they were stepping in, what kind of world is this, and how vast is this place.
General Agnius was pondering as hard as he could. But, in order to save his chance, he only have one choice.
Retreat.
His pride and honor are screaming as hard as he could, rejecting the idea. But logically, he knew it was the best choice. With the feeling of being trampled by a giant hay, he made his choice.
He would order the retreat.
The only problem right now was the enemy would let them retreat or kept pursuing?
"We are the mighty Saderan Empire. We are the strongest warrior you could ever imagine. But today is your lucky day. We will retreat. Tell it to your master, we will come back with much bigger force and make this land ours!"
General Agnius use his whatever remaining pride to assert dominance, but again, those little act were proved nothing with a simple gentle smile from Diablo.
"Kufufufu, then I will let you go. For now."
Phew
Inside his heart, General Agnius were relieved to receive a confirmation they would retreat safely. But he also felt very humiliated.
I'm going to be punished with this.
"Good choice, General. Let me lead the rear guard."
"Fine, I leave it to you, Count Formal."
Earlier, these two figures had a bickering about whether they should retreat or not. But after the decision has been made, they came back to being respectful to each other.
Diablo watch the scene with some relieved.
He didn't manage to end this chaos for a long term. But at least he manage to buy time for more planning. Yet, the biggest achievement today was the fact he and Souei manage to keep their side unharmed.
No casualties from Tempest. Not even injured. Some were exhausted, but they are fine.
They also managed to capture a large number of the invaders.
General Agnius had signalled the retreat, and the army was breaking off from their engagement and move away from the battlefield with a good order. Something that even made Souei respecting their discipline.
They properly marched back toward the gate.
The first round was an overwhelming victory for Tempest.
Yet, it hasn't finished yet.
…
General Agnius led his remaining force to came back to their world. He was surely in a very bad mood.
He was leading a huge army, granted an honor to lead the first wave, and yet he was defeated in a merely half of the day.
The initial 20.000 combined army has been reduced into just a 8000 remaining. His troops were either died, injured, or captured. And he didn't get anything to be brought to his world. No golds, no treasure, no slaves, and any kind of booties he could brag to his fellow generals on his initial wave of conquest.
The only thing he could brought was a piece of information about the people on the other side.
He was familiar with magic and monsters. But he never saw an army of orcs that were very discipline and well equipped. Those orcs were also seems to be bigger and stronger than the orcs from his world.
In his world, using a monster such as orcs or ogre was not a strange thing, but they were just like a wild beast and they would unleashed them without to the enemy without any proper weapon or equipment. They are the easiest sacrificial pawns.
No intelligence, only pure brute strength.
Yet, what he saw earlier was an army of orcs capable of disciplinary. He only manage to see a glimpse of it, but he knew there was a fellow orcs that capable leading the army. He barked orders, and his fellow orcs followed suit.
That's an intelligence.
And the mysterious human with wings who slaughter his elite wyvern riders, he couldn't fathom who or what they actually are. They fly with terrifying speed, they capable of sharp manouvres, and their teamworks was briliantly coordinated.
Even with such force, Diablo said they still have more warriors to come.
What kind of warriors? Is there anymore powerful creatures lurking around in that world?
What kind of nation he have picked a fight against?
That nation seems to be very wealthy since even a monster army were equipped with a fine looking armor and weapons. Something that even a wealthy Empire would never do.
Nevertheless, the Empire hasn't lost yet.
They were defeated only on the initial battle. The whole conquest is still possible. And when the Empire manage to subjugate that nation, they would celebrate it as the biggest triumph of the Empire ever have.
Albeit in a very sour mood, general Agnius still have some optimistic dream in his mind.
…
The battle has finished at the middle of the day.
Reinforcements has arrived shortly after that.
After hearing what happened from Souei, Benimaru had rushed to send his a capable retinue to reinforce the Yellow Numbers Corps.
The Yellow Numbers Corps itself was not on his full size. They were originally numbered 30.000 strong, and yet only 5000 has been sent to take the secure the gate last night.
Now, the Yellow Numbers Corps has been increased in numbers into 10,000 strong.
Benimaru was also sent the Green Numbers under Gobta. They were numbered around 12.000 strong, along with the elite Goblin Rider.
The current present army had already reached 22.000 strong. But many of the reinforcement is still on the way.
Red Numbers Corps which consisted from the various majins had sent 20.000 troops and estimated to be arrived at night. The Blue Numbers had already sent their own Wyvern Riders, but now they also sent their Dragonewts. The total numbers of troops from Blue Numbers that being sent was 10.000.
And lastly, a newly formal unit, consisted with a human only troops, the Grey Numbers Corps. Consisting from the remnants of the Volounteer Corps during the war the Eastern Empire, they receive a more proper training and recruit more cadets. Their earmark was a grey hellmoth cloth with a Tempest Flag ilustration on their plate armor.
The Grey Numbers was formed since a lot of humans reside in Tempest are eager to join the military and pick up arms to defend the nation. Rimuru wholeheartedly accept it, and gave the task to properly make them a professional army to Benimaru.
Benimaru had given everything he can to make them into a well-versed warriors.
At first, a huge numbers of applicants were drafted. But after a serious hellish of training, not even a half of it have a will to continue. But still, in the end, 25.000 human warriors, with a power in range from A- to A rank had officially formed.
Even some of them had already passed the enlightement, and in underway training to achieve Saint level power. They were equipped with unique-grade armors and weapons. Their officers and command in field had given a legendary-grade armaments. They receive various trainings, starting from the way of warrior into the latest technological weapons.
Right now, only the Grey Numbers Corps that have received the training to use modern firearms. And given with the billateral cooperation with the Eastern Empire, Tempest also developed it's own mechanized weapon such as tanks, planes, and artilery. Although it's still not as perfect as the modern nowadays firearms, the quality was still guaranteed.
This makes them a serious fearsome troops, and again, extremely loyal to the nation and their king, Rimuru. And the one who get the honor to be hailed as the leader, was Saare.
Saare was initially a part of the Three Battle Sages of the Holy Lubelios Empire under the command of Hinata. But since he and his partner, Grigori, was utterly defeated by Diablo he sought refuge to the rebel in the Falmuth kingdom who succeed to overthrow king Edward and change the nation's name into Farmenas Kingdom.
Saare and Grigori received a training from Razen, the archmage who initially a loyal subject to Falmuth but decided to turn his back against the nation. From that moment, Saare who have a great talent since the beginning, had ascended into a Saint.
His story doesn't ended up there. He had awaken into a Saint, yet he knew he's still far from the being who had defeated him.
Then, he met with Razen's master, Gadra.
Gadra was happen to be a newly subordinate of Rimuru, and he was very proud of it. He also bragging his status as a disciple of Diablo, the being who have beat him to the pulp.
Saare has already forgot his hatred towards monsters, and simply charmed by the tell of Rimuru's greatness. Finally, just before the Great Tenma Wars erupted, he and Grigori had choose to enlist themselves as part of Tempest.
Noticing the great potential from Saare, Benimaru instanty appointed him as the leader of the newly formed army unit. Benimaru saw an honor of warriors inside Saare's heart, a great ability, and extreme loyalty toward Rimuru.
Saare is not a slouch in terms of power. He's in fact, one of the few humans who reached a Million Class Existence Points. He's also have an elven blood, which means he have a long lifespand even before he ascended into become a Saint.
Saare characteristic had a great value as well. During his time serving as the Three Batllesages, Saare was known to be arrogant and hot-headed person. Albeit, he's not a stingy as he always acknowledge other people's strength and could cooperate when it needed. But still, his initial personality wasn't that good. But after series of event, started by the battle against Diablo, Saare has changed his personality pretty drastically. Now, he's a calm-headed man with humble attitude. He always thought someone else would be better than him, yet he would always work hard to be better everyday. A truly befitting being to become a Saint.
And now, the total expected army who would guard the gate are numbered in total of 75.000 troops.
A very huge number of warriors.
…
In the evening, the govermant hall in Tempest had made an urgent meeting.
Rimuru had already cancelled every of his schedule to held the meeting. The other executive were also present and leave their current task to be done later.
The cause of the urgent meeting was nothing else than the Gate.
In the meeting room, Rimuru had already noticed every of his high ranking executive had arrived.
Rigurd, Benimaru, Testarossa, Vesta, Mjormile, Shuna, Ririna, and every other minister had arrived.
Rimuru had started to open the meeting by asking various details to Benimaru and Souei about the current situation. Diablo was not present since RImuru had ordered him to stay near the gate and take a full command.
Benimaru and Souei had explained everything they know. The start of anomaly, the distorted space, and the initial peaceful solution to the invaders.
Everyone else listened in with a great focus.
"So, Diablo manage to threaten them and they would come back with bigger numbers?" asked Rimuru.
"Yes. They didn't say when, but they definitely would come back." Souei retorted.
"Hmmm… What do you think, Benimaru?"
"We face them. We manage their initial attack with only 5000 troops from Geld. I have sent more reinforcements. If they appear with the same prowess, I'm confident we can take care of them."
"I see. It's good to hear. Are there really just humans and wyverns? No demons or angel or some sort?"
"Me and Diablo had been wary of the maker of the gate. We've been fully on guard if the maker of the gate would appear and start making more chaos. But we never encountered anything other than humans along with their pets."
"How about information from the prisioners? How many we captured among them?"
"We have captured 8000 of them. Mostly from the injured who got left behind. We also captured 30 of their wyverns along with their riders. And the best thing was, we captured some of them who seems to be a high ranking status in their world."
"Excellent! Have we start the interrogation?"
"We have done it immediately as we could, Rimuru-sama."
"Is there anything worth to know right now?"
Souei didn't answered right away. Instead, he gave a bundle of papers. It's a report, a compilation of information that managed to be extracted from the prisioners. Souei also shared the copy to the rest executives.
"Saderan Empire, that's quite a name." Testarossa made a comment.
"Right, they have been done a lot of conquest for the past 600 years. No wonder they were arrogant." Benimaru responded. And this has made the other ministers started to make their own comment.
"It seems they have abundant of armies as well. Although only consisted of human."
"They don't seem to understand a skill, not even a voice of the world."
"But they do understand magic. At least, they seems to familiar with the basic."
"Hmm… It seems like a normal human nation, before Rimuru-sama created many usefull tools."
"It's pretty awful, so they still legalize a slavery, huh?"
"They claim a huge part of territories, we couldn't underestimate that either."
"Right, so this continent, Falmart is very vast and the Saderan Empire was the one who dominate it. This is not going to be easy to be dealt with politics alone."
"They take control of this vast territory, I wonder how they manage to keep the economy running."
"They're not, Mjormile-dono. It seems they more accustomed to do plundering than built a better system."
"Ugh, and these guys calling us barbarian?"
"What an amusing joke."
"Hahaha."
Rimuru watch his executives discussing freely and leave a comment without any reserve. He was happy to see this. But, this matter should be done precisely. First, he have to make it clear he made a good analysis about the situation.
"So, everyone, attention please." He raised his hand and the rest immediately quiet. Rimuru then continued, "From what we have gathered, I conclude that the Saderan Empire has a mentality as the agressors. Much more than the Insectrars, probably. But if what we get right now is already covering the whole truth about the Saderan Empire, I believe we could dealt with it easily since we only defending our home. However,"
Rimuru took a short pause.
"The real problem is the maker of that gate. We already understand it's not an easy feat to make a connection that could bend time and space to the other world. If the maker of the gate was deliberately open it at our world, who knows what kind cards he could pull."
"So what we should be wary of was the being who connecting our worlds with them?" asked Rigurd.
"Exactly. We know very little about it. The prisioners also knew almost nothing, except it was from their God." Souei retorted.
"Hardy, was it? In all my life, I never heard such name with this much power." Testarossa responded.
"Yes, their Underworld God, Hardy. There seems to other 11 Gods and Goddess as well. But the information about the appearance of the gate was from the Hardy's temple. There are too many possibilities we can pull out from this piece of information."
"Souei's right. We have to know more about it. We already have one suspect, Hardy. But we knew nothing about him, or her." Rimuru retorted, then continue "Then it leave us with our current problem. I personally cannot let this slide easily, knowing there are beings who capable to connect our worlds with theirs, then immediately hostile towards us. We might been lucky our enemy is pretty weak compared to us for now. But we don't know how many powerful being in that world as well."
"Then, what do you suggest, Rimuru-sama?" Benimaru asked.
Rimuru take a moment, he closed his eyes. Everyone who present were understood that Rimuru has trying to find a best solution, so they didn't disturbe him.
In fact, Rimuru was having a conversation with his Manas, Ciel.
{Say, Ciel, can we seal that gate?}
{It's possible, Master. But I know nothing about Hardy. Caution wise, whoever he is, he probably could outmanouvered us. He probably have a power to break our seal.}
{I see. Is it wise if I retaliate their hostile attitude?}
{All of Master's doing would never be wrong.}
{No no no… I could be wrong too. I wish you would tell me if I'm wrong.}
{But it's also true, whenever you follow your concience, you would never be wrong, Master.}
{Ughhh…}
Rimuru sighed quietly.
He wanted to know what are these 12 Gods in the other world. Who are they and what they want?
If not for today's chaos, he might let it off the hook and didn't bother to think about them. But today, they proved to be hostile.
They send their human Empire to trample against the other world. They let the Saderan Empire to do whatever they want. As a God, they should be guiding these humans into a righteous way, not the otherwise.
With that, the name of Hardy become his main concern. If there are 12 Gods and Goddess, why they didn't stop Hardy's doing? Are they working together, sharing a same goal with him/her? Or they didn't know what Hardy's doing?
The Saderan Empire has shown their obvious hostility even at their first step towards this world. Will the other people from the other side do the same if he manage to dealt with the Saderans? Will Hardy, or probably the other God and Goddess would find another pawns or worse, they would descend themselves and make a chaos in this world?
The invasion from Phantoms and Insectars had made a lot of painful scars for the people in Cardinal World. They would look at the invaders, whatever they are, with wary looks.
Rimuru had to take a long step to finally sent Zegion and Zalario to take control the Insectars and Phantoms. He want to prevent another invasion from whatever beings live outside Cardinal World. Whether it's from spiritual world, nor material world.
And that's when Rimuru had finally decided his move.
Opening his eyes, he realised the other executives has been staring at him pretty intently. They were waiting for him.
Rimuru gave them a faint smile, showing his willingness to walk on unwanted path.
The others saw this, and they respond with a bigger smile. Showing that they would follow whatever Rimuru's choice with their best.
Rimuru noticed this, and have a small blush. He is very happy to see his people would always be with him. Preparing himself, he took a breath, then announce,
"Everyone, we will marched towards the other side of the gate."